Let's trade recipes!

I'd say it's time to explore new recipes, but I am not interested in how to make your Grandmothers' famous oatmeal surprise cookies . . . wait that does sound yummy, let's just save that for a little later (I love cookies *yum). I am talking about success recipes.

I had a very inspiring substitute professor this week, his name was Christopher. He graced our class with his inspiring commentary, he had a clever way of adding to the topic of discussion without changing the subject too much. All throughout class he went on and on about various techniques for drawing particular objects, we were focusing on drawing hair this week; "You must think of it as smoke" he would say. Towards the end of class he summed all of his creative suggestions up very eloquently by referring to them as "recipes" for success. He mentioned that recipes help ensure that "you always deliver, even on a bad day". Well frankly put, I have bad days quite often . . . that is to be expected when working full time and going to school. I find myself passionately involved in both my job and school, so there is always conflict in my schedule and my creative production has declined. I think about how much more comfortable I am while cooking when I am prepared with a recipe. Of course I am most comfortable when I just grab my ingredients and jump right in, but that only means that the recipe is memorized, no?

So where do you find these recipes for success?

Your Grandmothers' cookie recipe may have been a home made concoction of your Grandmother, but it surely took some trial & error to get it right. How long does it take to bake a batch of cookies? A little less than an hour from start to finish. Let's put things in perspective. In life you have a very limited number of batches to bake before you are out of time, let's consider a career path as a batch of cookies. It can take decades to establish a career. I'm beginning to think that rather than gambling my life away by trial & error batches, it's time to find a contemporary success recipe and add to it my own personal touch; I am looking for a mentor.

A mentor for me would be someone who has fully utilized all of their talents to their best use. I need guidance. But of course I can't seem to describe exactly what kind of "recipe" I am looking for, I will know it when I taste it.